Stockton family alleges they're being terrorized

Wednesday

Nov 14, 2012 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - Since Nov. 5, a Stockton family has lived in sheer terror. They have not left their home since the threats and attacks began. An adult daughter whose apartment was broken into and burglarized has not returned to her residence. An adult son refuses to take the bus to get to his new job. The family matriarch, Vicki Stocker, won't even go to the grocery store out of fear of being accosted.

Joe Goldeen

STOCKTON - Since Nov. 5, a Stockton family has lived in sheer terror. They have not left their home since the threats and attacks began. An adult daughter whose apartment was broken into and burglarized has not returned to her residence. An adult son refuses to take the bus to get to his new job. The family matriarch, Vicki Stocker, won't even go to the grocery store out of fear of being accosted.

Police are investigating alleged incidents against the family.

Stocker said the threatening phone calls began shortly after noon Nov. 5. They came from the estranged mother of one of Stocker's grandchildren, perhaps because Stocker had expressed concern for the child's welfare.

About 4 p.m. that day, as Stocker, 50, and her daughter, Stephanie Brown, 23, were pulling into their driveway, a car screeched to a stop across the street, Stocker said. Two women known to the family got out, ran across the street and verbally assailed them. Then the women went back to their car, where one grabbed a full soda can and threw it, hitting Stocker's youngest son, Davon Stocker, 18, on the left side of his face.

Vicki Stocker then came out of her garage with a hammer, and the women got into their car. As they left, Stocker said, they intentionally tried to hit Brown, running over her foot. Brown did not seek medical attention at the time.

Minutes later, the same women were seen by neighbors at Brown's nearby apartment breaking the front door off its hinges and removing a 42-inch flat-screen TV, jewelry, a checkbook, clothing and $900 worth of professional makeup Brown uses in her work as a makeup artist, according to Stocker. They also broke all the mirrors in the apartment.

Heading to a doctor the next morning to have Brown's foot examined, Stocker and Brown returned to the apartment. While inside inspecting the damage, the phone rang. A familiar voice said, "Look outside." They looked, and the two women were in the parking lot staring back at them and threatening to beat them up, Stocker said.

About 12:30 p.m., Stocker said she left Brown alone at her home to pick up Brown's 3-year-old son from nearby Parklane Elementary School. In front of the school, Stocker said she got a phone call from Brown saying people were at the house, then she heard a scream just before her cellphone ran out of power.

"I can't describe it. Just shocking, really," Brown said, still traumatized a week after she was brutally attacked at her mother's home. As Stocker described it, 13 people - nine women and four men - came to her house, started beating on the garage door, kicked in the gate to the backyard, and then two women and a man entered the house through the front door.

"They tased me and pulled me out the door, pulled me to the ground, then kicked and punched me. I just ran, then (a woman) pulled out her gun and pointed it at me," Brown said.

Meanwhile, Stocker, panicked by her daughter's phone call, was rushing home. She said that at Tam O'Shanter and Castle Oaks drives, her car was blocked by one of three vehicles apparently leaving the scene of the attack.

Stocker said three women jumped out, one armed with a stun gun. With her grandson in the car, Stocker said she had to protect him, so she got out of her car with her hammer and said the police were on the way.

"When they heard that, they left," Stocker said.

A few hours later, Davon Stocker was walking home at Knickerbocker and Manhattan drives after his first day at a new job when he was approached by a gun-wielding man on a scooter who took his cellphone and cash. The man was unknown to the family, but Stocker said she believes it is related to the other incidents.

The family has turned to the police, but Stocker said they don't believe law enforcement can offer adequate protection or are taking the situation seriously.

"I'm telling you who did it. Go and arrest them before they kill somebody or someone gets killed," Stocker said, claiming she and her family can identify some of their attackers.

The police confirmed that the family has been the victim of several crimes and said they are following up.

"What we've learned so far in the investigation is there is some type of internal feud between the victim and victim's associates. Our investigators are going to be working with the victim in regard to any other potential evidence in these cases along with any identification of the suspects in these cases," Stockton police spokesman Officer Joe Silva said Tuesday. He could not provide further information on the incidents.

Stocker is a mother of seven who moved from Berkeley to north Stockton in 2005. She started two downtown businesses on North Hunter Street - a deli called Made Just Right and a religious goods store named Genesis. The recession led to the businesses closing and Stocker giving up homeownership.

The large home she rents is nearby in a well-kept, middle-class neighborhood where many of the houses have three-car garages and two stories - including her own. "I love the Stockton Police Department. I respect them, but man, I don't know what to do. It's very important to keep my place of residence," Stocker said.